LAMINATED glass, a reinforced glass with safety and energy-saving features, is fast becoming a preferred building material, though its use is now restricted only to large commercial and office complexes.

The growing trend of use of laminated glass in high-rise buildings has underlined the need for safety as all types of monolithic glass used as facades in such high-rise buildings are fraught with the danger of becoming sharp weapons when they break.

Laminated glass, with a polyvinyl butyral resin (PVB), is protected from disintegrating when broken and does not cause any serious injury to passers-by.

In Australia and the US, the material has seen considerable growth due to growing awareness about its safety and due to mandatory regulatory measures.

Lately China, which accounted for 1.2 million sq.m. of consumption and India have shown good response.

South India, the focal centre of the IT boom and corporate investments, accounted for the highest consumption last year with 40,000 sq.m., according to Mr Phillip Davies, Architecture Manager, Asia-Pacific, and Marketing Manager, Australia and New Zealand, DuPont Glass Laminated Products.

Talking to Business Line, Mr Davies said laminated glass with butacite PVB interlayer - a specialised process used by his company - resists penetration from impacts.

DuPont, which has come out with its own new process, is currently exploring the scope for India to manufacture laminated glass.

The company will only be providing the technology called the `butacite process', said Mr Davies, adding that DuPont was already working with the Department of State (DOS) in developing new technologies for US Embassies and other Federal buildings for which it was using a new glazing system that incorporated `sentry glass plus' (SGP) interlayer to help guard against severe bomb blast.